Tfmusic4

The cover has boxart from Galvatron and Rodimus Prime, the back has more boxart and some character info. The inside sleeve on the right has even more boxart and the page on the left the lyrics to the songs and a picture of Show Hirose in action on stage. See the inner sleeve. This was also released on a cassette single;

The cassette single (VST-10132) from 2010 with a bonus spoken word message by Ultra Magnus (in Japanese voice). This and some of the other black and white pictures on this page were scanned from the Transformers music box, they are truly impossible to find.....this is with most eighties cassette singles)

OTHER SERIES

When the USA stopped producing new Transformers cartoons , Japan continued with the Headmasters , Masterforce , Victory and Zone series. All had original background music, later released on the 5cd music box.

As with the first seasons, each new series had a unique opening- and ending theme , which were all released on 7" singles, except Zone which only was released on a cd-single. Most themes also came out on various anime music compilations. In 2003 the longer versions were re-released on a double cd set and the shorter version in 2004 in the Music box.

HEADMASTERS

The Headmasters songs were; "The Headmasters" and "Kimi wa Transformer" , sung by Kageyama Hironobu. The score of the series, which is unavailable, was composed by Katsunori Ishida.

02 A.D. 2011
04 Double Convoy Birth of a Dream
09 The Destron Last Planned Motion

Here are some pictures of the single of these songs that came out on the first of July 1987;

As with all the records, this single has two cheery opening and ending songs; "The Headmasters" and "Kimi wa Transformer" , sung by Kageyama Hironobu. The front sleeve has all the major characters, including some of the battle beasts. I'm not sure , but if I remember correctly Headmasters also had a third song heard sometimes during battle scenes in the middle of the season.
The back , the inside

A cassette was also released (Cak 824). I can't read japanese, but I am assuming this tape has the music that was rereleased in 2004 on the Transformers music box as disc 2.

Update; I finally found a copy of this tape. It comes in a normal cassette box with a booklet with lyrics. There's an extra cardboard sleeve over the box with the Headmasters artwork on it. It has 10 tracks totally. A very cool item.
Since I don't have a scanner anymore I have listed the following two pictures of this cassette; the black and white one comes from the Music box set booklet, the coloured one is from the Tempting toys website, who also still have one for sale as I write this.

Kageyama Hironobu

Kageyama Hironobu has sung more songs for anime shows...including Saint Seiya and Dragonball Z , Kyashaan, Kishin Douji Zenki and more than 10 years later, Beastwars Metals! Here is his official website. This website has more pictures.

The bgm for Headmasters was composed by Ishida Katsunori , who also did Masterforce. It was released as part of the Music box in 2004. I haven't succeeded yet in finding more info on this composer , I don't know if he is still working.

MASTERFORCE

The Masterforce songs were; " Chojin Masterforce" and "Moero! Transformers mori no kijidogashyoo" sung by Dan & Igarashi Toshiya. Igarashi also sung songs for Masked rider. Here are some pictures of the single of these two songs that came out on the 21th of April 1988;

The artwork on this one looks a little cheaper than on the other singles. All these records were sealed and originally cost 600 Yenn (about $/Euro 12) when they came out. The back , the inside

The background music for Masterforce was composed by Ishida Katsunori who also did Headmasters. I always thought he did Victory too, since the music resembles Masterforce so much. Some themes only have slightly different melodies and arrangements. The music was released in the Music box. Here are some samples;

23 A Battle.... and
25 Final Fire Guts!

There were 4 other Masterforce releases that year according to the Transformers music box booklet (CK 809 , Cmz 689 , Cak 844 and Cmz-713) . One of them should have the music that was rereleased on disc 3 of that box set. These cassettes (if they are cassettes, they could be records too, they look more like tapes though) are very rare, so info is again hard to find. If they didn't feature music (except for the opening and ending theme songs) they probably had stories on them.

cmz-689
Cassette single with the same contents as the record

(CAK-844)
Transformers Masterforce
Since this costs 2300 yenn, this was probably a full album cassette with songs about the MAsterforce Transformers. No score.

CMZ-713
A cassette single with an opening and ending theme, don't know which ones though.

CMZ-609
I think this is a cassette. Looking at it contents it has music from Headmasters and Masterforce. The Music box booklet mentions "opening and ending themes". That's all I know.

VICTORY

The Victory songs; "Transformers V" and "Kijidogashyoo dan Cybertron" by Mikuri Kouji (not sure if this is the complete artists name though). Here are some pictures of the single of these songs that came out on the 8th of April 1989;

The last one on vinyl. This one has pretty good artwork and you can see the difference between Japanese and Western artwork. A Western sleeve would have probably only shown a picture of Star sabre, while the Japanese show as many characters and colours as possible. The back , the inside

The background music for Victory was composed by Michiaki Watanabe (aka Chumei Watanabe) (Thanks to Brian for the info). The score was released in the Music box. He also wrote music for Masked rider, Daitetsujin 17, Goldorak, as well as many other series. This website has some more info. He also wrote completely original music for the Transformers LP that was mentioned above.

Michiaki Watanabe

Listen to some soundsamples;

05 Union! Lio Kaizer
07 Inversion! Mortal Victory Union
08 Destron Huge Fort
12 Victorious Star Saber

I've got the following info from transfan Executor;

I have counted four themes in Victory that were not released on the 5 disc boxset 'history of music' . One of them was in the episode 'combine, liokaiser' when star saber got his back wounded with a spiked wheel or somethin' like that , the other three themes were in 'death of ginrai' ('farewell, optimus prime'). my favourite one was in this episode for three times and it always was associated with ginrai's operation. it was also in further episodes and also was dedicated to ginrai's death/rebirth.
speaking of this favourite theme, i made a pour-quality sample taken from the different episodes ,

LISTEN HERE

Thanks to Executor!

The following two compliation cd's with music from various anime shows on them have Victory themes. More info is unknown.

ZONE

The Zone songs; "Transformers Zone" and " Mirai no" sung by Kimi and Ichiro Mizuki respectively came out on a cd-single (CODC-8551) , I don't know if a cassette version also exists. It has the often used Zone video tape artwork and came as a snappack, a 3" cd in a long carbon sleeve. I still need to find a copy of this one, so that's why this black and white scan from the Music box booklet.

Ichiro Muziki has sung for hundreds of anime shows since 1968. His credits include; 'Mazinger Z', 'Great Mazinger', 'Mazinkaiser', 'Combattler V', 'Gundam', 'Kamen Rider', 'Neo Getter Robo', 'New Gatchaman', 'Tekkaman' and 'Ultraman'

Ichiro Muziki

Zone only had one episode (and a great one it was). The background music was the same as from Victory, composed by Michiaki Watanabe.

Except for single releases , these songs also appeared on a couple of compilation cd's in the eighties. Not as rare as the singles, but still hard to find.

ROBOT ANIME MEMORIAL VOLUME 4 Cd set which has the openings of Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory (cc-4541,cc-4540) Tracklisting (roughly translated from Japanese characters): 1. Milky Way springtime of life 2. The traveling which conveys love < the luminous flux electric God 3. Luminous flux thunder god 4. Before fighting is and going to 5. It is young formation < the video soldier 6. Video soldier 7. Heart full hot line < transformer the 8. The * 9. As for you theme of trance fourth < transformer super God master fourth > 10 Theme of super God master fourth 11. Burn! The transformer < fight! Super robot life body transformer V (victory) > 12. Transformer V (victory) 13 The it is the to be, < the OVA " fight! Super robot life body transformer Z (sone)" > 14. Transformer Z (zone) theme? To I future you	ROBOT ANIMATION VOLUME 2 1990 2 CD set release 20 tracks per disc 67:20 total running time on Disc 1 62:27 running time on Disc 2 Contains theme songs, fight songs, and outro for Commbattra V, Danguard Ace, Voltes V, & Daimos-Disc 2 contains Daltanius, Transformers Headmasters, Transformers Victory, Transformers Masterforce
ANIME SOUND MUSEUM VOLUME 2 Still in print , but hard to find , this cd collects songs from the television animation broadcast in 1983-1987. [ VICTOR(JP). It has the opening and ending to the first season of the Japanese Transformers as well as 2010. See the back cover.	ANIME THEME SONG GRAFFITI 2 This compilation cd that came out in Japan on 1 Dec 1994 has both the theme songs to Transformers 2010. Click here for a larger scan of the front and here of the back
TV Anime Super History Vol.30 Volume 30 of a cd series that collects Japanese anime tv themes from July '87 to January 1988, in print, but hard to find. COLUMBIA(JP). I have no picture of it.